Coiling Dragon (Pan Long)

The pocket dimension room was divided into two layers; a central layer, and a lower layer. The central layer was the original layer. Linley was currently on this layer. As for the lower layer, this was for Delia to train in.

Delia finished her training session and opened her eyes.

She stared at the chaotic space outside the membrane. The first time she had seen it, Delia had felt shocked. But now, she was used to it.

Raising her head, she looked up through the opening and saw Linley seated cross-legged in a meditative trance. Seeing Linley, Delia instantly felt her heart grow peaceful, and a calm smile appeared on her face as well. She immediately closed her eyes, then continued to muse on the profundities of magic within her sea of consciousness.

“Thrum!” “Thrum!”

The unique rhythms of the earth were sometimes like thunder, while other times like the crashing of waves. It contained boundless mysteries within it. Linley could clearly sense these two hundred and fifty six layers of waves reverberating within his consciousness.

The profoundness of the Throbbing Pulse of the World was hidden within these 256 layered waves.

However, the Throbbing Pulse of the World, born from nature itself, actually contained all of its secrets within a single vibrational pulse as well.

Linley had bitterly trained for nearly twenty years. Only then had he managed to train from the first layered wave to the 256th layered wave.

“256 layered waves can just barely express the profound mysteries of the earth. To reduce the number of waves, but to increase the profundities of the Throbbing Pulse of the World…” Linley was constantly considering this, one idea after another flashing past his mind.

None of them were correct!

Wrong!

Wrong!

All wrong!

Countless transformations and training methods appeared in his mind, but Linley rejected them all. Linley’s mind was currently in a state of focusing on nothing else besides considering, demonstrating, and then rejecting one training method after another. Perhaps some could let Linley improve in power, but Linley knew that none of them were the correct path.

“Wrong. Wrong.” Linley’s forehead was beaded with sweat, but Linley didn’t notice at all.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, or how many possibilities he had rejected.

Suddenly…

The meditating Linley’s eyebrows suddenly twitched, and then Linley suddenly rose to his feet. With a flip of his hand, the adamantine heavy sword appeared. His eyes still closed, Linley began to brandish about the adamantine heavy sword, but he wasn’t completely utilizing the Profound Truths of the Earth.

“Thrum!” A vibration which seemed to have shaken Linley’s mind to its core.

“Right. That’s how it is.” Linley suddenly opened his eyes, which were filled with joy.

In that moment, Linley had managed to successfully fuse the profound truths contained within the first layer and the second layer into a single layer. “Combining two layers into one layer…” Linley’s eyes were filled with wild joy. “Right. One step at a time. I can’t possibly combine all 256 layered waves into a single wave all at once. First, I’ll combine two at a time. I’ll combine them all separately.”

The first wave and the second wave became one.

The third wave and the fourth wave would become one.

The 255th wave and the 256th wave would become one.

The end result would be that he would be able to exert the power of the 256 layered waves of the Profound Truths of the Earth into just 128 layered waves!

Analyzing and combining them separately would be far easier. In addition, Linley had already succeeded in merging the first wave with the second wave.

“Right. This has to be right.” Linley was very confident in his chosen path. After all, the end result of this ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ was combining the 256 layers of waves into a single wave. Thus…any two waves should be fuse-able as well. Only, it would still be difficult.

With the successful test case of fusing the first and the second waves, however, Linley now had confidence in this method.

Each and every single wave contained with it a different aspect of the profound mysteries. Every single fusion attempt required Linley to spend an enormous amount of time and effort guessing, testing, and evaluating.

“Lord Linley!” As Linley was pondering his next move, he suddenly heard a familiar voice.

Linley opened his eyes. It was Barker. In the room below, Delia awakened as well, and she leapt onto the central level. After all, the distance between the two was only two or so meters. Given Delia’s current level of power, she could easily leap that distance.

“Barker, why are you here?” Delia grinned at him.

Linley allowed his mind to temporarily rest for a while. He had thought for a long time and tested for a long time. By now, Linley had already successfully fused the third and the fourth waves. What Linley now needed to do was to continue…until he fused the 255th and the 256th waves.

At that time, the 256 Layered Waves of the Profound Truths of the Earth would be simplified to the 128 Layered Waves of the Profound Truths of the Earth. Linley expected that his power would instantly rise multiple times.

“It is already so hard to fuse two waves into one. To continue down this path and further fuse the 128 waves into 64 waves will most likely be far more difficult.”

This sort of fusion, to describe it in a rather crude way, was like fitting something into a box. If you had four boxes, and you wanted to put the items in two of the boxes into one box, although it would be hard, it was doable.

One could put the items in those four boxes into just two of the boxes.

But if you then wanted to squeeze the items in those two boxes into just one of the boxes…it would be at least ten times harder than what you had done previously!

This sort of difficulty rise was exponential!

This wasn’t something you could accomplish just by thinking about it. It required an extremely high level of comprehension regarding the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ and repeated attempts and repeated tests.

“Barker, what happened?” Linley asked.

“Lord Linley, Castro of the War God’s College is currently outside. He came at the orders of the War God to find you.” Barker immediately said. Hearing the words ‘War God’, Linley couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, then immediately stood up. “Come, let’s go outside and take a look.”

Resting his hand on Delia’s shoulders, Linley immediately covered both his body and Delia’s with that layer of deep azure battle-qi, circulating it according to that unique rhythm.

“Crackle crackle.”

As they walked past the door, Linley took a few turns, and then arrived at the underground meeting hall. Castro was currently there waiting quietly with eyes closed. Hearing Linley’s footsteps, Castro immediately opened his eyes and stood up.

As soon as he saw Linley, Castro immediately revealed a smile on his face, while he was secretly shocked. “Linley is far more reserved and disciplined than he was last time at the imperial capital. No wonder Senior Apprentice said that Linley was on par with him now.”

“Castro, we haven’t met in years. Please, sit.” Linley smiled as he sat down.

Castro’s smile grew wider. “It has been years indeed. These past few years, I haven’t changed much, but you, Linley. Not only has your personal power improved dramatically, you’ve even gotten married and had children. I saw your two children in Baruch City. That Taylor was especially cute.”

Hearing others praise his children, Linley naturally felt quite happy.

Delia laughed as well. “Mr. Castro, what is the purpose of this visit?”

Castro laughed as well. “This time, I have come at the order of Master. I have come to deliver some news to Linley.”

“What news?” Linley was puzzled.

“Next year, March 3rd, Linley, you must make haste to War God Mountain.” Castro instructed.

Linley, Barker, and Delia glanced at each other, their hearts puzzled. Linley spoke. “Castro, can you tell me why the War God is asking me to head to War God Mountain next year, on March 3rd? What is this about?”

“Umm…” Castro hesitated a moment.

“Is there a secret involved?” Linley guessed.

Castro nodded. Linley’s heart suddenly moved. The War God had previously told Linley that within the Yulan continent, there was something known as the Necropolis of the Gods, and this Necropolis of the Gods had many precious treasures left behind by fallen Deities, such as…divine sparks!

“Can you speak more clearly?” Linley asked, and then he explained, “Barker is also a Saint-level expert, and my wife is an Arch Magus of the ninth rank. She’ll reach the Grand Magus Saint level soon. There’s no need to hide anything.”

“Then…fine.”

Castro paused, then nodded. “This time, Master has instructed you to go to him, most likely in order to prepare to head to the Necropolis of the Gods together. The reason I say this is because before I came, Master had a special conversation with ten of my more senior fellow apprentices, most of whom have been training for more than three thousand years.”

“The Necropolis of the Gods?” Delia and Barker let out surprised cries.

Delia had heard Linley speak of the Necropolis of the Gods before. They were husband and wife, after all. Linley never held anything back from Delia.

“Are you saying that those ten personal disciples of the War God’s College will be heading to the Necropolis of the Gods?” Linley asked.

“You’ll know next year, so there’s no need for me to hide anything. Our War God’s College is indeed sending ten personal disciples over.” Castro’s face grew solemn. “But Linley, entering the Necropolis of the Gods is extremely dangerous. Just because you are strong, doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily survive.”

“Oh?” Linley frowned, a bit puzzled.

Castro explained, “Master only chose his ten most powerful disciples. You should have guessed this. The Necropolis of the Gods is a place which will easily kill most Saints who go there. Only upon reaching a certain level would one have hope of surviving.”

“But if you are strong but have terrible luck, then you still might lose your life.” Castro laughed bitterly. “In the history of the War God’s College, several experts died in there, such as our Third Brother. In the past, his level of power was equal to that of the Senior Apprentice, but he still died in the Necropolis of the Gods.”

Linley nodded slightly.

The people of the War God’s College had undoubtedly entered the Necropolis of the Gods multiple times. They were fairly experienced.

“Very dangerous?” Delia asked, feeling a bit worried. She knew that Linley would most likely enter the Necropolis of the Gods.

Castro nodded seriously. “It is. Master has said that if one rashly charges about in the Necropolis of the Gods, even someone like Master will fall, much less a Saint. Thus, in the Necropolis of the Gods, one needs strength, one needs caution, and of course…one needs a bit of luck.”

Castro suddenly laughed. “But you don’t need to worry. I only heard of these things from my other fellow apprentices. I’m not too clear myself. It probably isn’t too dangerous. After all, the Senior Apprentice has been in the Necropolis of the Gods four times now, but he’s still alive, right?”

Delia was gripping Linley’s hands, afraid.

Feeling the warmth coming from Delia’s hand, Linley felt a warm sensation in his heart as well. He immediately consoled her, “Delia, it is fine. I specialize in defense, and I’m also very fast. In addition…the path of training isn’t a path for constantly cowering and hiding.”

Linley’s heart was filled with anticipation towards the Necropolis of the Gods.

Five thousand years ago, when the experts from other planes descended here, the Four Supreme Warriors had suddenly been born…what was the reason for this?

“Alright.” Delia obediently assented.

“Castro, can I go?” Barker’s voice suddenly rang out. “The first Undying Warrior, the founder of the Armand clan, also experienced those sudden, transformative upheavals five thousand years ago. I, too, wish to enter the Necropolis of the Gods.”

“This…will be very difficult.” Castro shook his head. “Each time, there are a fixed number of slots available for one to enter the Necropolis of the Gods. Master has a limited number of slots. The ten fellow apprentices, twelve other experts training in seclusion who are relying on Master…twenty two in total.”

Linley said comfortingly towards Barker, “Barker, don’t be impatient. I’ll ask when the time comes.”

Castro laughed, then rose to his feet. “Linley, since I’ve delivered the message, I’ll go back now.” Seeing Linley was about to try and convince him to stay longer, Castro hurriedly said, “No need. Master is still waiting for me to go back and report on this mission.”

“Then I won’t force you to stay. We’ll meet again next year, at War God Mountain.” Linley stood up to send the guest away.

After Castro left, Linley, Barker, and Delia all began discussing the Necropolis of the Gods.

“I absolutely must go to the Necropolis of the Gods. If I can obtain a divine spark, even if I don’t use it, I can give it to Wharton or to Delia. That would be wonderful.” Linley laughed calmly. “Even if I cannot acquire a divine spark, perhaps I’ll be able to acquire some other precious treasures. And I have this strange feeling…that the Necropolis of the Gods is a place I must go to.”

Linley had the feeling that something there was calling to him.

“Hrm? Bebe’s finally back.” Linley’s eyes lit up. Bebe had gone to the Forest of Darkness to understand his heritage. So what was his heritage, exactly?